Simply Me: Spring Break

I love spring, and it is my FAVORITE season! Even better, we get Spring Break, which went by way too fast this year, as it does every year! This year we did many fun things throughout the week. It was just way unfortunate and disappointing to have to return to school yesterday! Here are the highlights!

The Beach!
We all skipped school on Good Friday in order to get a headstart on our vacation. We drove to my Grandma's house, and everyone decided to go out to lunch. After lunch, the plan was to go to the movies, but knowing that it would be one of only a few nice days, we wanted to go to the beach. Usually, we go to the military beach with our cousins, and so it was the first time any of us had gone to the actual beach and boardwalk. So much fun! Everyone loved the sand and the sun!

Hula-Hoopin'
One of the funnest parts of Grandma's house this time was the hula hoops! My little cousin enjoyed challenging, and beating, all of us in hula-hoop contests. However, I was a close second.

Ryan couldn't get the hula hoop to spin around his body, and so I helped him! We actually lasted for a long time!

Eggs
It is tradition every Easter that we have a huMoNgOuS Easter egg hunt! This year lots of money was in the eggs, as well as the candy, all scattered around in the back yard. The novelty has worn off for me, but for the little kids, they loved it! However, I love dying Easter eggs and making them look unique. I ended up doing a really cute egg that was hot pink with perfectly white polka-dots!

Easter Morning
It's always fun to see the cute Easter baskets scattered in the living room and riping them open to see what the Easter Bunny left you this year. However, each Easter, everyone in my family remembers the year when we woke up and there were NO baskets, just one simple chocolate bunny. We were very upset at first, thinking the easter bunny forgot us. But then, when we ate the chocolate, we discovered a puzzle. In the end we found our baskets, but we realized that Easter really is about Jesus Christ.

Food
When we get together for family gatherings, it seems like all we do is eat, and eat, and EAT. There is always so much good, home-cooked food that is, sometimes unfortunately, irrisistable.
Easter dinner consisted of the following: chocolate pie, rolls, potato salad, some asian thing (Grandma's friend brought it over, and she is from Korea), green bean cassorole, ham, olives, and deviled eggs. And that was just one meal.

Rachel's Room
Over spring break, Rachel was supposed to stay at my Grandma's house all week, and so I decided to be VERY NICE and redo her room for her. It is something that she has wanted for a while, and knowing mom wouldn't let her do it, I decided to surprise her and redo her room while she was gone. I sneakily had Rachel "help" me pick out the colors and bedspread for her room. Unfortunately, after FIVE DAYS of spending my spring break in that room, she came home EARLY and didn't like it at all. Ungrateful child...

Taking down wallpaper is NOT fun.

I love this picture! This was a collection of all the tape I used.

Speckled hand after only the primer, and paint covered feet.

The final color of the wall.

Brace Face
Suzanne was so lucky to get braces this spring break. She was exciting before, but afterwards she was more annoyed. Any kind of painful mouth work is, in my opinion, the ultimate weightloss plan. She couldn't eat hard foods for five days. Oh, and I'm sure she loved the pictures we took in the orthodontist's office!

The Sunday before she got her braces.

The glowing mouth!

What she looks like today! Except, her mouth isn't as puffy!

Richmond Zoo
Friday, as Spring Break was coming to a close, we decided to take advantage of the beatiful sunny weather and go to the zoo. It is small and nice, and has some very cute, interesting, and completely exotic animals.

The giraffes come right up to you!

I love zebras!

This orange tiger paced back and fourth right in this spot because he wanted to attack the bears in the next cage. FREAKY.

They let their peacocks roam free. SO cool.

If you look closely, there is blood on his mouth. The other alligator actually had a rodent in his mouth and was eating it.

Camels: Gross and Stinky, but still Cute

Fire and S'mores
On Saturday night, we decided on a whim to use our fire pit and make smores as a family. The boys loved it, and they even brought out their old Peeps from Easter and "killed" them... yeah, some people might think it is not good for little boys to be doing, but we just laughed. Don't worry, they really are good kids.